Apparatus for laundering continuous feed towel lengths



p 1976 w. D. KENNEDY ETAL 3,526,106

APPARATUS FOR LAUNDERING CONTINUOUS FEED TOWEL LENGTHS Filed Oct. 7, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Inventors Walter David .Kennedy, David Edward John Soundersfi Arthur Reginald Marshall Z 4Q5WM Sept. 1, 1970 W. D. KENNEDY ETAL APPARATUS FOR LAUNDERING CONTINUOUS FEED TOWEL LENGTHS Filed Oct. 7, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 lnven tors Walter Dovid Kennedy,

David Edwdrd John Saunders a Arthur Reginald Marshall 5M Wfz p 1970 w. D. KENNEDY ETAL 3,526,106

APPARATUS FOR LAUNDERING CONTINUOUS FEED TOWEL LENGTHS 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed 001;. 7. 1968 Inventors Welter .-Duvid Kennedy David Edward John Sounders 8 Arthur Reginald MurshuH I fig; W a

United States Patent US. Cl. 6813 13 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Apparatus for laundering continuous feed towel lengths comprises apparatus which allows soiled lengths to be joined together end-to-end to form a continuous succession, which washes the towel lengths, in a fiat state, and which winds each towel length in turn on a mandrel, means being provided for stopping the feeding process so that another towel length may be joined into the succession and further means being provided for stopping the winding-up process to allow separation and removal of each towel length after it has been wound on the mandrel.

This invention relates to apparatus for laundering continuous feed towel lengths, i.e. towel lengths which are used in continuous feed towel cabinets.

According to the invention apparatus for laundering continuous feed towel lengths comprises, in combination means for joining together soiled continuous feed towel lengths end-to-end to form a continuous succession of such towel lengths, a bath of detergent through which the succession of joined together towel lengths may be passed, hot water jets followed by rinsing jets for projecting water at the succession of towel lengths after they have been passed through the bath of detergent, to wash the towel lengths, at least one steam heated drum around the surface of which the washed towel lengths may be wrapped to dry the towel lengths, a mandrel onto which each dried towel length in turn is wound, first drive means for continuously passing the succession of towel lengths, in a fiat state, past the hot water jets and the following rinsing jets, second drive means for feeding the succession of soiled towel lengths into the bath of detergent, which second drive means are capable of intermittently feeding each soiled towel length, in turn, into the bath of detergent at a faster rate than the aforesaid first drive means pass the towel lengths past the said jets, and which second drive means may be made inoperative to stop the aforesaid feeding process in order that the end of the last towel length of the succession may be joined to one end of a further soiled towel length, third drive means for continuously pulling the washed towel lengths around the drying drum and for feeding the dried towal lengths to the wind-up mandrel, which third drive means operate at the same speed as the said first drive means, fourth drive means for driving the said mandrel, which fourth means are capable of winding each dried towel length onto the mandrel at a faster speed than the operational speed of the said first and third drive means and which fourth means may be stopped to allow separation of each towel length, in turn, from the following towel length after it has been wound into a roll on the mandrel, and removal of the roll fro-m the mandrel, and means located between the said fourth drive means and the wind-up mandrel for accumulating the amount of the said following towel length which is pulled from the drying drum during the period in which the wind-up mandrel is stopped.

By way of example, a specific embodiment in accordice ance with the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of apparatus for laundering a succession of continuous feed towel lengths;

FIG. 2 is an'enlarged view of part of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic side elevation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1.

With reference to the drawings, there is shown an apparatus for laundering a succession of continuous feed towel lengths; i.e. towel lengths which are used in continuous feed towel cabinets. After use of these towels, the rolls of soiled towels have to be washed, dried and rerolled for subsequent use. The apparatus forming the subject of this example is capable of laundering these towels in a continuous manner.

The apparatus shown in the drawings is in a state in which a succession of towel lengths are in the process of being laundered and, for the sake of clarity, the apparatus will be described in this state.

Each roll of soiled towel 10 is deposited, in turn, into a carrier box 11, the leading end of the soiled towel being joined to the trailing end of the previous towel, as at 12, by means of a sewing machine 13 mounted on a bracket 14. The towel is then threaded around three rollers 15, 16, 17 mounted between the arms 18 of the bracket 14 and is then passed downwardly between a pair of drive rollers 19, 20 into a bath 21 filled with detergent. The roller 19 of the co-operating rollers 19, 20 is continuously driven by an electric motor 22 and is urged against the roller 20 by a pivoted lever 23 connected to the piston of an air jack 24, when the piston is retracted, as shown. Extension of the piston of the jack 24 pivots the lever about its centre to move the roller 19 away from the roller 20 and thereby renders these drive means inoperative. The feeding of the soiled towel into the bath of detergent will thereby be stopped. To operate this jack 24 to stop the feeding process, there are provided photo-electric means 25 for directing a light beam across the path of the soiled towel as it is extracted from the box 11, which means will thereby detect the trailing end of the towel and then stop the feeding process. This trailing end of the towel may then be handled by the operator and joined in overlapping relation to. the leading end of the next towel to be laundered by use of the sewing machine 13. The joined ends may then be dropped down into the posi tion shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and then the jack operated to restart the feeding process of the soiled towel into the bath of detergent. The feeding speed of the drive means 19, 20 is necessarily faster than the general throughput speed of the apparatus to make up for the time lost during the period that the drive means 19, 20 are stopped and it is arranged that this time will be regained by the time the photo-electric means 25 detect the trailing edge of the next roll of soiled towel.

The bath 21 of detergent is split into two parts 26, 27 by a vertical baflle 28, the bottom edge of the bafile being spaced above the bottom of the bath and being upturned, as shown, for the purpose explained below. The soiled towels are fed, in succession, into the right-hand part 27 of the bath 21, as viewed in FIGS. 1 and 2, so that they form a zig-zag pile 29 therein, the towel then being taken from the bottom of the pile around the upturned edge of the baffie 28, which serves to prevent any entanglement of the towels, between a pair of squeeze rollers 30 to remove excess detergent from the towel and then into the washing portion 31 of the apparatus. The bath 21 is continuously fed with fresh detergent through pipes 32, 33, and the bath is also provided with a drain pipe 34 and an overflow pipe 35. A pump 36 is provided for pumping detergent from a supply tank (not shown) to the feed pipes 32, 33. The said right-hand part 27 of the bath 21 is of sufficient capacity to hold say four or five lengths of towel whereby not only does this part 27 allow a store of soiled towels to be built-up therein, for use when the drive means 19, are inoperative, but also allows the soiled towels to be soaked in detergent for a period of say five minutes, this soaking period serving to assist the subsequent washing of the towels.

The construction and operation of the washing portion 31 of the apparatus will now be described. The towels to be washed are drawn through the said squeezing rollers 30, located at the exit point of the bath 21 of detergent, around three rollers 36, 37, 38 and underneath two further rollers 39, 40, by means of four pairs of drive rollers 41, 42; 43, 44; 45, 46; 47, 48 between which the towel then passes. The towel then emerges from the washing portion 31 through a slot 49 in the end wall of the washing tank.

Located between the rollers 39, 40, and above and below the path of the towel, are two manifolds 50 each having four jets 51 spaced apart along its length and hence across the path of the towel, to project hot water at the towel as it passes beneath the rollers 39, 40. These manifolds are supplied with hot water through a feed pipe 52 connected to a hot water supply tank (not shown). Also, a transverse bafiie 53 is provided downstream of the jets 51 to prevent dirty water passing, by splashing, into the subsequent rinsing section 54. This rinsing section 54 houses the four pairs of drive rollers 41 to 48. There are also upper and lower sets of rinsing jets 55 carried by manifolds 56 spaced between each two pairs of drive rollers. Hence there are three such sets of rinsing jets 55, each set being located downstream of one of the first three pairs of drive rollers. Rinsing water at the required temperature is supplied to the manifolds 56 and hence to the jets 55 through a feed pipe 57 connected to a supply tank (not shown), and all the jets 55 are directed so that they project water at the nip of the rollers immediately upstream thereof. Hence, in operation, the first pair of drive rollers 41, 42 squeeze the towel after it has passed the hot water jets 51, then the towel is immediately subjected to the application of rinsing water by the first set of jets 55. The towel is then squeezed and soaked again twice by the intermediate pairs of drive rollers and the other two sets of rinsing jets, and is finally squeezed relatively dry by the final pair of drive rollers 47, 48. The towel has thereby been washed and passes through the said slot 49 to the drying portion 60 of the apparatus.

Referring again to the pairs of drive rollers 41 to 48, it is the lower roller of each pair, i.e. rollers 42, 44, 46 and 48, which is driven and these rollers are driven by an electric motor 58 via a chain drive mechanism 59 connecting the four driven rollers together. Also, the upper roller 41 is urged towards the associated lower roller 42 by means of a pair of cranked levers 61 (only one of which is shown) which carry the ends of the roller 41, are pivoted on a transverse bar 62 and are each connected to the piston of one of a pair of jacks 63. Extension of the pistons of the jacks will thus urge the roller 41 towards the associated roller 42 to pull the towel out of the bath 21 of detergent and to drive the towel through the washing portion 31 of the apparatus. Similarly, the other upper rollers 43, 45, 47 are urged towards their respective lower rollers 42, 44, 46 by means of pairs of cranked levers 64, 65, 66 the said pivot bar 62 and further pivot bars 67, 68, and by the said pair of jacks 63 and a further pair of jacks 69. Finally, the washing portion 31 of the apparatus is provided with a drain 70 to discharge the water from the washing portion 31.

Each towel of the succession, having been washed in the washing portion 31, passes underneath a horizontal roller 71 and is then wrapped around the surface of the upper drum 72 of two steam heated drying drums 72, 73, passes over and under two more rollers 74, 75 respectively which rollers are located beneath the said roller 71 and is then wrapped around the lower drying drum 73. Five further rollers 76, 77, 78, 79, 120 are also provided in order that the towel may be wrapped a further number of times, i.e. four more times in this example, around each of the drying drums 72, 73, each lap of the towel around one of the drying drums being offset along the length of the drum. The necessary offset of the towel between each lap is achieved by inclining the two rear rollers 78, 79 (shown on the left-hand side in FIG. 2) to the horizontal. The precise course of the towel during each of the five laps is shown best in the schematic FIG. 3, the right-hand view of the drying drums representing the first lap, the central view representing the second, third and fourth laps and the left-hand view representing the fifth lap. At the end of these five laps, the towel is completely dry. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, steam for heating the drums 72, 73 is fed into each drum through one end of the drum on its axis. Each drum 72, 73 is mounted so that it is free to rotate about its axis but the drums are rotated only by the passage of the towel therearound and are not positively rotated by external drive means.

The drive means provided for pulling the towel around the drying drums comprise a pair of rollers 80, 81 between which the towel is passed after it has completed its five laps of the drying drums and after it has passed over roller 76 and underneath a still further horizontal roller 82. As shown, the lower roller 81 of the pair of rollers 80, 81 is driven by an electric motor 85 and the upper roller 80 is urged towards the lower roller by a pair of levers 86 (only one of'which is shown) which carry the ends of the roller 80 and which are connected to the pistons of a pair of air jacks 87 (only one of which is shown). Extension of the pistons of the jacks 87 will thereby urge the upper roller 80 towards the lower roller 81 and maintain the drive to the towel. Furthermore the speed of operation of the drive rollers 80, 81 is the same as that of the above-mentioned rollers 41 to 48 'of the washing portion 31 of the apparatus.

Located at a point intermediate the drive rollers 80, 81 and the said roller 82, there is a manifold 83 carrying jets 84 for projecting anti-mildew fluid onto the surface of the towel, which has then been dried, to inhibit the growth of mildew on the towel after it has been re-used and stored in a roll awaiting 're-laundering.

A constant supply of such anti-mildew fluid is pumped to the manifold 83 from a supply tank (not shown).

Downstream of the drive rollers 80, 81, the towel is passed, via an accumulator device 104 underneath two rollers 88, 89 to a wind-up mandrel 90. This mandrel is driven by an electric motor 91. Also, to assist removal of a roll of towel 92 from the mandrel, the mandrel is supported at one end only and is tapered away from the said end. There is also provided an ejector plate 93 for the roll of towel. This plate 93 has a hole 94 so that it may be freely slid onto the mandrel and is fixed to the piston to an air jack 95 whereby extension of the piston will move the roll along the mandrel towards the free end of the mandrel and may be even wholly ejected off the mandrel, depending on the length of stroke of the jack 95. The grip of the roll on the mandrel is thereby at least loosened so that the roll may be readily removed from the mandrel by the operator.

Since the towel lengths 10 are laundered in succession and joined together end-to-end, it is necessary that the lengths should be separated from each other as each length, in turn, is wound into a roll on the mandrel 90. To achieve this result, the drive, i.e. the motor 91, is stopped each time a join 12 approaches the mandrel and each successive join is detected by a micro-switch 96 located on the outside of the path of the towel, as it passes around the roller 89. This micro-switch 96 is operated by a pivot lever 97 carrying a wheel 98 which rests on the adjacent surface of the towel, whereby the towel has to pass between the roller 89 and the wheel 98. Thus when a join 12 between two towel lengths, which join will comprise three thicknesses of the towel, is positioned between the wheel 98 and the roller 89, instead of only the one thickness of towel which occurs during normal winding, the wheel 98 and hence the lever 97 will be deflected and will operate the micro-switch 96 to stop the motor 91. The sewing thread joining the towel length, which has then been wound into a roll on the mandrel, and the following towel length, is then removed and the jack 95 is operated to eject the roll of towel from the mandrel. The free end of the following towel length is then temporarily held on the mandrel by the operator and the motor 91 is restarted to wind the following towel length into a roll on the mandrel. The operational speed of the mandrel 90 is initially faster than the running speed of the apparatus in order that the period of time which is lost during completion of the winding of one roll and the start of winding of the next roll, should be regained, but is thereafter controlled by means of a slipping clutch (not shown). This clutch is also necessary to take into account the continuously increasing radius of the roll being wound.

A further aspect of the wind-up operation is that the roller 89 is caused to oscillate continuously about a vertical axis in order to counteract any misalignment or wandering of the towel being wound which would result in the edges of the wound roll being irregular. The means provided for oscillating the roller 89 in the required manner are fully described in the specification of US. Patent application Ser. No. 637,967 now Pat. No. 3,424,397. It is therefore sufiicient to state that movement of the roller 89, or rather of the bracket 99 on which the roller is mounted, in one direction, is etfected by an air jack 100 and in the other direction by a spring 101. Operation of the jack 100 to move the roller in the said one direction is controlled by an air-operated valve 102 which is, in turn, controlled by an air supply fed into the interior of the roller 89 and allowed to emerge therefrom through a radial hole at one end of the roller. Aligned with this hole, is the nozzle of a feed pipe 103 for the valve 102. Operation of these means is such that the adjacent edge of the towel being wound will either allow air to flow through the pipe 103 to the valve 102 and hence allow the jack 100 to move the roller 89 in the said one direction or cut off the air supply and hence allow the spring 101 to move the roller in the other direction. Any wandering of the towel from its predetermined path is thus minimised.

As stated above the winding motor 91 is stopped during the period of time in which each towel length, in turn, is separated from the succession and removed from the mandrel 90. However, the laundering process as a whole is not stopped and thus it is essential to provide the above-mentioned accumulator device 104 to accommodate the length of dried towel which is drawn off the drying drums during this standstill period of the mandrel 90.

This accumulator device 104 comprises two sets of rollers between which the towel is threaded, one set comprising the above-mentioned drive roller 81 and two other rollers 105, all of which are rotatable about fixed axes, and the other set having two rollers 106 each of which is located between two of the rollers of the first-mentioned set. The rollers 106 are also mounted on a carriage 107 that has a pair of wheels 108 at each side for running up and down two parallel rails 109 fixed to the sides of a downwardly sloping chute 110. During normal running of the apparatus, i.e. whilst a length of towel is being wound onto the mandrel 90, the tension of the towel will maintain the rollers -6 and the carriage 107 in their uppermost positions, i.e. their positions shown in FIGS. 1 and 3. However, when the winding process is stopped, the tension in the towel downstream of the accumulator device 104 will be relaxed. The carriage 107 will thus be able to move down the chute so extending the length of the path of the towel between the roller 81 and the last 6 of the two rollers and thereby building-up a store of towel. On restarting the winding mandrel 90, the faster speed of the mandrel will slowly reduce this store and hence return the rollers 10:6- and the carriage 107 to their uppermost positions.

Although the inventeion is not restricted to the specific details of the apparatus as described above, it is essential that the apparatus should be capable of laundering a succession of towel lengths as a continuous process that does not have to be halted in order to join other towel lengths onto the succession already being laundered or in order to separate and remove each laundered towel length after it has been wound onto the wind-up mandrel 90.

A further advantageous feature of the invention is that the stages at which further soiled towels are joined into the succession and the wind-up mandrel are adjacent each other to facilitate operation of the apparatus by one operator.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for laundering continuous feed towel lengths comprising, in combination:

(a) means for joining together soiled continuous feed towel lengths end-to-end to form a continuous succession of such towel lengths.

(b) a bath of detergent through which the succession of joined together towel lengths may be passed,

(c) hot water jets followed by rinsing jets for projecting water at the succession of towel lengths after they have been passed through the bath of detergent, to wash the towel lengths,

(d) at least one steam heated drum around the surface of which the washed towel lengths may be wrapped to dry the towel lengths,

(e) a mandrel onto which each dried towel length in turn is wound,

(f) first drive means for continuously passing the succession of towel lengths, in a flat state, past the hot water jets and the following rinsing jets,

(g) second drive means for feeding the succession of soiled. towel lengths into the bath of detergent, which second drive means are capable of intermittently feeding, each soiled towel length, in turn, into the bath of detergent at a faster rate than the aforesaid first drive means pass the towel lengths past the said jets, and which said second drive means may be made inoperative to stop the aforesaid feeding process in order that the end of the last towel length of the succession may be joined to one end of a further soiled towel length,

(h) third drive means for continuously pulling the washed towel lengths around the drying drum and for feeding the dried towel lengths to the wind-up mandrel, which third drive means operate at the same speed as the said first drive means,

(i) fourth drive means for driving the said mandrel, which fourth means are capable of winding each dried towel length onto the mandrel at a faster speed than the operational speed of the said first and third drive means and which fourth means may be stopped to allow separation of each towel length, in turn, from the following towel length after it has been wound into a roll on the mandrel, and removal of the roll from the mandrel, and

(j) means located between the said fourth drive means and the wind-up mandrel for accumulating the amount of the said following towel length which is pulled from the drying drum during the period in which the wind-up mandrel is stopped.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim I]. in which the means for joining together soiled continuous feed towel lengths end-to-end comprise a sewing machine.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the second drive means comprise a pair of rollers of which one roller is capable of being driven at the said faster speed and means are provided for moving the said one roller away from the other roller to render the drive means inoperative.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 in which photoelectric means are provided for detecting the trailing end of the succession of towel lengths as each soiled towel length is fed, in turn, into the bath of detergent, and for operating the said means which are provided to render the second drive means inoperative so that the said trailing end may be joined to the leading end of another soiled towel length.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which means are provided for continuously supplying the detergent bath with fresh detergent.

6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the first drive means comprise a plurality of pairs of rollers constituting a conveyor for passing the succession of towel lengths past the hot water and rinsing jets, which rollers are capable of applying a squeezing action on the towel being washed.

7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 6 in which there are four pairs of such rollers, all of which are located downstream of the hot water jets, and in which there are three sets of rinsing jets each set being spaced intermediate two of the pairs of rollers and being arranged to project water at the tip of the pair of rollers upstream thereof.

8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which there are two drying drums, the succession of washed towel lengths being lapped a plurality of times around each drum, each succeeding lap being offset from the previous lap along the length of the respective drum.

9. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the said accumulating means comprise two sets of rollers, the dried towel lengths passing around the rollers of one set alternately with the rollers of the other set and the rollers of one set being mounted on a carriage which is movable away from and towards the rollers of the other set whereby movement of the carriage away from the said other set of rollers results in a temporary store of dried towel being built-up between the sets of rollers.

10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which sensing means are provided for detecting the joins between successive towel lengths, which sensing means are located a short distance upstream of the wind-up mandrel and when operated, by the presence of a join, stop the fourth drive means thereby allowing the towel length that has then been wound into a roll on the mandrel to be separated from the following towel length, the following towel length then beingwound into a roll on the mandrel.

11. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the bath of detergent is provided with internal baffle means to prevent entanglement of the soiled towel lengths therein and a pair of rollers at the exit point of the bath to remove excess detergent from the soiled towel before it is passed to the hot water jets.

12. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the said bath of detergent is of sufiicient capacity to submerge several towel lengths at any one time.

13. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which there are provided additional jets for projecting anti-mildew fluid onto the towel lengths after they have been dried, which jets are located between the drying drum and the third drive means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,402,410 9/1968 Schumm et al. 68-20 X WILLIAM I. PRICE, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 6819.1, 178 

